Is it ok to do this? I have a sprained toe that’s pretty painful, but the doctor told me I should be good to go for IMSG. He gave me Loratab for the pain, but I forgot to ask him if it was ok to take during the race. I can’t imagine it would help with peak performance, but the pain is likely to get pretty severe so I was going to have some on hand just in case. Any thoughts?
Sounds like a bad idea. Im not just talking about what it could do your head as you are trying to race. A common side effect is nausea…last thing you want to worry about! Pump up the motrin before/during, may take the edge off.
Good point. They did make me sick one day when I didn’t eat enough food with them and I don’t think a pack of GU counts as a good meal. That is definitely a concern, eventhough they are just the 5mg and not the bigger ones. I was also concerned with the health aspect of it (meaning are they worse for you liver durning exercise, worse for your heart, etc). It’s going to be a long day no matter what because I haven’t ran or biked in almost 4 weeks, but it’s cool because I’ve heard the IMSG course is extremely easy 
I just wasn’t sure if anyone has had good or bad experiences with it.
I think that if you are taking Loratab ie lortab, You dont need to be racing. Lortab 5 is fairly strong. Its what we give some of our post op patients.
I say suck it up and go without. I did fracture my greater tuberosity in my shoulder and never took anything so i may be biased.
We tell people not to drive on lortab it is a narcotic and does impair your decision making ability some.
Steve
I raced on Lortab a few weeks ago. It was fine. I do think it’s highly variable. You must know ahead of time how Lortab affects you.
In my case I find that I concentrate just fine…driving is fine for me. My reactions and reflexes seem good too. In my martial arts days I was on it once or twice and was still 100% when sparring.
I didn’t experience any nausea this time, but I have in the past a couple of times.
of course it would be illegal to drive under the influence of lortab, but as long as you’re fine…
of course it would be illegal to drive under the influence of lortab, but as long as you’re fine…
Sorry I wasn’t aware of that law.
I guess it is ok to take opium for a little pain, EPO for the low blood, Cocaine to give you a little finishing kick. They are all banned substances in most athletics and if you can’t drive (Driving while Impaired) me thinks you should not be racing either. Don’t let a little thing like rules get in the way of a good race. I really hope you were kidding with your question.
I might walk a marathon on loretab. but I wouldnt want to be OW swimmign with a big pack or biking long decents while drugged up.
Just to add to your concern, taking a narcotic will not only dull your ability to make smart choices, but also dull pains you may have if you injure yourself. Pull a muscle and you may not even know, or the pain may be reduced to the point of “not a concern”, but in reality you are doing extreme damage.
CS
No I wasn’t kidding. I’m actually not sure what the law is here, or how it’s enforced.
All I could find in the searching I did of the statutes addressed illegally possessing or taking a prescription drug like Lortab when it wasn’t prescribed to you. And your liability if you were in an accident and the tox screen showed it in your system. It’s not clear if it’s illegal to take the prescription for valid reasons and drive.
Granted, my judgement could be impacted such that my assessment of whether I’m impaired or not is suspect; but over the years due to my bad back I’ve got a lot of experience with this medicine. It doesn’t seem to impair me whatsoever at the prescription dose–and I’ve tested this in a variety of objective ways…mtn bike racing, semi-contact sparring. I don’t crash more often, I don’t ride slower, I don’t get hit more often…
Any way, to the OP’s question I suggested that it was highly variable. Just because I can race on it fine doesn’t mean he can.
Given the risk of hyponatremia, I’d go without motrin as well.
I had knee surgery two weeks ago and had lortab for pain. I cannot imagine racing on it. Hydrocodone is a controlled substance for a reason and it is illeagal to drive while on, it will say this on the label.
If you really must race try a oral NSAID like Naproxin or ibuprofen, you can even piggy back with tylenol. Or ask you doc for a Volteran gel sample. This a topical NSAID that you apply to the site, add the tylenol piggy back and you should get some releif without the narcotic. Just remember that tylenol is also in lortab so DO NOT take both, unless you don’t like your liver.
If you are in enough pain to require lortab, id say skip the race.
Dude, sit this one out. Lortab can mess you up when you least expect it. I went through two different operations and used lLortab for recovery fine. Third one, day 2 post-op had a migrane pop up out of nowhere that screwed me up bad. Glad I wasn’t swimming/biking/running that day. Take a break, we could probably all benefit from a little rest. Good luck.
My doctor, well my sports medicine doctor, normally answers my questions same day if I leave him a message. I’d at least get your doc’s advice. I’ve seen people pretty messed up with that stuff on intervention, then again alot of pro-cyclist doping doc’s get caught handing out morphine.
-Physiojoe
I guess it is ok to take opium for a little pain, EPO for the low blood, Cocaine to give you a little finishing kick. They are all banned substances in most athletics and if you can’t drive (Driving while Impaired) me thinks you should not be racing either. Don’t let a little thing like rules get in the way of a good race. I really hope you were kidding with your question.
I’d like to add to this list a few bong hits to make sure you have a strong case of the munchies and keep fueling yourself at each aid station.